Today I'm sharing my finished capelet of which I showed a little bit in my previous post. I wanted to finish this capelet in time for Castlefest, which is an annual fantasy festival here in the Netherlands. We go there every year since a friend has introduced us to it five years ago. 
Almost everyone at Castlefest dresses up, there're all kinds of costumes, historic, anime, sci-fi, etc.  As I'm a bit of a Sherlock Holmes fan I decided to make a Sherlock Holmes inspired cosplay. As always I had way too many ideas and ran out of time to make everything I wanted to make. I actually finished my capelet on the morning of the festival (and to be quite honest I didn't properly finish it until last week!).

I also made the skirt for this outfit, and hope to share more pictures of the skirt with you soon.
But for now you'll have to make do with my capelet! ;)

As I told you in my previous post the pattern I used for this capelet was Dhurrie from Rowan Magazine 54. As you can see in the picture below, the original has a scarf attached.
To me the scarf didn't feel very Sherlock Holmes at all. So I decided to add a collar instead. 

I like it much better with the collar! I knitted the collar in garter stitch and added the lighter yarn for two rows to make the collar more one with the rest of the capelet.

The collar can be worn up or down.

I also found some pictures of what I've worn in previous years at Castlefest. I made the skirt together with my mom.

Hello! I know it's been a while since I last posted something, I've been so busy over the past few weeks. Learning for my last final in my bachelor's phase, trying to look at the best ways to go to Helsinki in August, so I can bring the most stuff, looking for a job, and also visiting family. 
Today I did my last final here in Groningen, now I've finished studying for my bachelor's degree! I feel a sense of relief that it's all over, especially the writing of my thesis. But I also have some mixed feelings because this also means no more studying in the Netherlands. I'm both excited and scared about my move to Helsinki. But I guess it's only normal ;)

Two weeks ago when  I visited my family, me and my mother went to the 'Hortus Botanicus' in Leiden. It's 'a green treasure in the historical centre of Leiden', according to their website. Which is true! There were some landscaped gardens, one Japanese garden, and greenhouses with exotic plants.

But apart from being so busy I managed to squeeze in some time to block something I knitted last autumn. Tada!

This scarf is knitted from the Haapsalu Scarf book. Haapsalu is a small coastal town in Estonia, where these delicate lace scarves were knitted for rich tourists. 
Special to the Estonian way of knitting is incorporating little 'nupps' when knitting. Nupp is Estonian for button (see my studies can come in handy ;)). Nupps are made by increasing 5 or more stitches in one stitch in the knit row and then purling all of these stitches in the purl row. When first adding nupps to your work it might seem a bit hard but practice is all it takes! It sometimes also helps to change your needles or your yarn.

The reason I haven't blocked this scarf before is because I couldn't decide on whether I wanted to knit a border or not, and if I wanted a border, what kind of border? So, some weeks ago I decided I liked the scarf as it was and that it was ready for blocking. Now I'm very happy I didn't add a border, the scarf is big enough as it is and I'm so happy with the result. The difficulty and also the fun with lace knitting is that you only see the result after blocking and it's hard to imagine this before you've done that. 

Below are some more pictures of this luscious soft and warm scarf.

Hello again! Today I like to show you something that isn't quite finished yet. I was inspired to make wreaths by the lovely Lucy from Attic24. If you don't know her blog yet you should pay a visit! She has clear instructions on how to make one yourself. 
Because I'm more a knitter than a crocheter I decided to knit my wreath instead of using crochet stripes. 

Here I'm deciding what colours to use. I wanted to use vibrant colours that I associate with spring and summer. Although I sometimes like dark colours, they are not very appropriate here in my opinion. Also I wanted some balance between warm and cool colours. 

Unfortunately the picture is of rather poor quality, so the colours look somewhat different in real-life. Much more vibrant!

For casting on I used 40 stitches, to make my stripes fit snuggly around my wreath. However if you're making a wreath yourself 40 stitches might be enough but maybe you'll need to add some stitches or lose some. The most important thing is to make sure the stripes fit around your wreath. 
Because I'm knitting with Rowan's Pure Wool DK yarn I decided to use 4mm knitting needles.

Stripes in progress! I'm quite fond of the colours I put together here. In some earlier projects I sometimes regretted the colours I choose. Not this time! I choose these with more care than usual and thought about it. So happy I did!

I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the next stages, i.e. putting the wreath together and such things. All I can show you now is the almost finished wreath with some  flowers and leaves. 

I'm planning to make many more different flowers and leaves. The flowers I made so far are either a product of my own imagination or from Attic 24 or Nicki Trench's book Cute and Easy Crochet. 

Thank you for reading my post and feel free to ask anything! For now I'll leave you with my basket of yarn in happy colours!